Agreed Bolty. One of the (several) problems is that our long-haul pilot's sabres are very rusty and have been tucked away for so long that many mainline pilots can't quite remember where they put them. GoD has no such problem, as He keeps His sabre finely honed, being the highly respected leader of men that He is (even more respected now, after his not-so-subtle written threat to mainline pilots recently).
Hopefully the new AIPA leadership will be able to find the right balance between having some industrial fortitude, and carefully playing the inevitable
PR war (ie, not doing rash & silly industrial things that screw the ordinary punters). If they don't, we're all buggered. In any case, the old leadership were never going to do anything but blithely follow GoDs commandments until mainline conditions as we know them are wiped out.